The Brazilian way to make things easier. São Paulo is one of the fastest growing cities of theworld. It is doing very well economically. Every block of four one- or two-storeyhouses that falls into the hands of building contractors is transformed intoanother skinny block of flats. Verticalisation they call that here. You see helicopters in the air flying from one apartment building to another, avoiding the never-ending traffic jam. São Paulo is educating people through well-designed public spaces. You find SESCs (social commercial services) – spaces, where people can meet, read, surf the net, eat and sleep – everywhere in the city. Lina Bo Bardi’s SESC Pompéia, a combined cultural and sports centre, is the most famous. There are free libraries in the ultra-modern metro stations. There is a system called Serviço Social da Industria that allows anybody to get a four-month free training to become a hairdresser or a manicurist or learn howto be a copywriter for the advertising industry. Speed is not the same as haste. We saw old couples walking in love like in their teens and we saw people taking time to kiss goodbye passionately before they rush off to work.But most important of all is the original and informal way the authorities and the average Brazilian find ‘ways to make things easier’. There is a special word for that: jeitinho, which not only has a negative connotation of corruption or taking advantage of someone, but also positive meanings, such as ingenuity, creativity, solidarity and conciliation. The informal job of the catadore is an example of this. A self-organised collective of freelance rubbish collectors under the flyover who are ‘knowledge workers’ and who have realised equal rights for men and women. To stress the Brazilians’ historical predisposition to informality, where the rest of the world says ‘cool’ when something is very special indeed, they use the word legao,which means both ‘legal’ and ‘cool’.

Sao Paulo -
Very high buildings being built in an area where there are still few builings. It’s the city growing vertical. Barra Funda - SP - 06/12/09 - pic. by Sylvia Sanchez… Sylvia Sanchez –
Sao Paulo Lab

Sao Paulo -
A catadore is a freelance rubbish collector of recyclable waste. The sorting begins on the street. The side of the cart is hung with pre-sorted ropes and rubbish sacks.… Lino Hellings –
Flyoverpapa

Sao Paulo -
Every friday morning the men and women of the collective clean out the place.After a week of sorting the non-recyclable materials are gathered and removed from the plot.… Lino Hellings –
Sao Paulo Lab

Sao Paulo -
Couple parting, protected by his little blue umbrella. All in Sao Paulo is done with speed, but with intensity, even a quick farewell can be unforgettable, speed is not synonymous… Felipe Denuzzo –
Sao Paulo Lab

Sao Paulo -
The catadores are organised in a coöperative with equal rights. The young women are sorting out bottles of oil. It is an informal but highly specialized profession.… Lino Hellings –
Sao Paulo Lab

Sao Paulo -
Despite the informality of the job of catadores there is a support organisation that helps the collectives organise themselves. The only principle the collectives have to accept is, work as… Lino Hellings –
Sao Paulo Lab

Sao Paulo -
On Avenida Paulista, biker in a suit shelters under the canopy of the stand, waiting for the pedestrian traffic lights to cross the open avenue. The couple also is protected… Felipe Denuzzo –
Sao Paulo Lab

Sao Paulo -
A new and legão (cool, literally ‘legal’) venue for photography opened today. The first exhibition is showing the gutters of Sao Paulo. It is shot by a collective named… Lino Hellings –
Sao Paulo Lab

Sao Paulo -
The office wall of the Movimento Nacional Dos Catadores (MCNR). is covered with photos of the last congress. Every photo features Lula, the president of Brazil. He hands out… Lino Hellings –
Sao Paulo Lab